WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- A letter written by a top al Qaida deputy to Iraq's insurgent leader in July outlined the group's long-term goals in Iraq and the Middle East, newspapers here reported Wednesday.

    In the 6,000-word letter, dated July 9, to Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant Ayman Zawahiri urged al Qaida's Iraq branch to prepare for the inevitable US withdrawal from Iraq by carrying out political as well as military actions, the reports said.

    The letter, seized by US forces during counter-terrorism operations in Iraq, was first revealed last week, but officials at that time released only three sentences of it. The full text of the letter was released on Tuesday.

    In the letter, Zawahiri told Zarqawi that the US occupation of Iraq had provided Islamic militants with a historical opportunity to win popular support.

    "Our planning must strive to involve the Muslim masses in the battle, and to bring the mujaheed movement to the masses and not conduct the struggle far from them," Zawahiri said.

    Invoking the specter of the United States abruptly abandoning Iraq as it did to Vietnam, Zawahiri counseled immediate political action: "We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us."

    The missive also contained a striking critique of how Zarqawi has gone about waging his war against not only US troops but also Iraqi civilians.

    Zawahiri urged Zarqawi to refocus on politics.

    "When the Untied States left, al Qaida must be ready to claim as much territory politically in the inevitable void that would arise," he wrote.

    In the letter, Zawahiri compared the fierce war of resistance that Iraqis and foreign fighters have waged in Iraq since March 2003 with the speedy fall of Afghanistan's Taliban government after the American invasion in 2001.

    "We don't want to repeat the mistake of the Taliban, who restricted participation in governance to the students and the people of Kandahar alone," Zawahiri wrote.

    US officials declined to reveal when the letter was intercepted,and whether it had been sent or received, according to the reports. Enditem